The College of Science at the University of Basrah organized a seminar entitled (Genome Editing Can Be Employed in Bioremediation) by the PhD student Anwar Abdulwahab Maki.

The study aims the use of genome editing in microorganisms to improve their ability to bioremediate the polluted environments. The talk covered few topics including the definition and importance of bioremediation and the role of microorganisms in eliminating the environment from pollutants. Genome editing experiments are designed to create a change in the structural or functional characteristics of living organisms at the level of nucleic acids, RNA or DNA.” Techniques of genome editing: Recombinant DNA technology allowed cutting and then splicing together of DNA molecules and engineered endonucleases there are three types: 1- zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) 2- transcription activator-like effectors nucleases (TALENs).  ZFNs and TALENS are proteins that work in a similar manner, containing one module that can be engineered to recognize a specific DNA sequence and guide a second, attached module to cut the DNA. 3-CRISPR-Cas9 is a technology that has been discovered as part of a bacterial defense against viral attack in Streptococcus pyogenes and can be used as a genome-editing system.   Two repairing mechanisms are activated by the modified cells: homology directed repair (HDR) that create desired and specific mutations and non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) repair that leads to the formation of random and unwanted mutations. Genome Editing has other applications like curing the infection, stopping the viral replication and attacking the pathogenic bacteria.